November 6, 2009

PRSA 2009 International Conference Features Two Online Marketing Heroes

I'll by flying to San Diego this weekend to speak at the PRSA 2009 International Conference next week. Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and a member of the SES Advisory Board, will also be speaking at the annual Public Relations Society of America event.

Odden is speaking on Monday, November 9, at 10:15 a.m. about "Help Google Find Your Releases: Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Tactics for Public Relations Professionals."

Nine out of 10 journalists, reporters and editors use search engines to do their jobs, according to a recent survey by TopRank Online Marketing. In this environment, public relations professionals must understand the ins and outs of search engine optimization (SEO).

So, Odden will help PR people find out how to choose the best key words, optimize their newsroom and press releases, build better links, and sell SEO to decision makers. Plus, he'll share "the No. 1 SEO tactic to implement today."

I'll be speaking on Tuesday, November 10, at 11:15 a.m. with Laura Sturaitis, the senior vice president, media and product services, at Business Wire.

How do you know your press release delivers value? Are there ways to increase a press releases' ROI?

Sturaitis and I will discuss real live examples and techniques to get the most mileage for press releases, especially in the Web 2.0 world. We'll explain why PR people need to work hand-in-hand with their Web team to see how visitors are getting to their site and moving through it. We'll also examine Web analytics for compiling, tracking and measuring activity deriving from the press release via the wires and elsewhere.

If you want a preview, check out my post on the ComPRrehension blog, which is entitled, "Does Your Press Release Deliver Value?"

Odden and I also spoke last year at the PRSA 2008 International Conference in Detroit. Why is this useful information for search engine optimizers to share with their colleagues down the hall in the public relations department? SEO specialists and PR specialists need to work together to handle the opportunities and threats created by Google universal search.

When Google announced universal search in May 2007, Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google, said, "The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer every time a user enters a query."

This radically changed everything we knew about search engine optimization (SEO) and public relations (PR). If your webmaster isn't optimizing content for YouTube, Google News, or Google Images, then who is?

With more than 12.8 billion expanded search queries a month on Google Sites in the U.S., this isn't a rhetorical question. In other words, the SEO specialists and PR specialists need to get out of their silos to ensure that their organization is getting found in all the right places.

As I told Michael Miller, the author of "Online Marketing Heroes: Interviews with 25 Successful Online Marketing Gurus," back in 2008, "For a good part of the 20th century, every part of the marketing mix was in a different silo. Advertising had its lingo and its metrics, and PR had its lingo and its metrics, and if you had a group that was focused on trade shows and events, they had their lingo and their metrics, etcetera. One of the things that is sort of a byproduct of keeping people in their silos is that things that the email marketing people learned ten years ago, or the search engine marketing people earned five years ago, the PR people in the same organization haven't learned yet. As a result, they keep doing what used to work but stopped working a long time ago, only nobody noticed."

I added, "To the extent that you can get the PR people interacting with the search people, they will discover that there are lots of things they can do together."

And Odden was also interviewed for Miller's book. So, your PR people will be getting the same advice no matter which online marketing guru they listen to at the PRSA 2009 International Conference -- or which chapter of Miller's book they read.

Odden and I both spoke at SES London 2008. Check out my video interview with him below.

Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing, at SES London 2008

And Odden and I are both speaking at SES Chicago 2009. So, there's no escaping our combined message: Get out of your silo; start interacting with other members of your marketing team.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

October 30, 2009

Business Wire Conducts Video Interview of Warren Buffet

Last month, after watching HostingYourParty, which told people how to host a Microsoft Windows 7 House, I asked: If you create something so bad that it goes viral, is it a public relations disaster?

Today, after watching "Warren Buffett is Bullish on America's Future, but Says That a Full Economic Recovery Will Take a While," I'll ask a different question: If you create something so good, is it a video marketing triumph even if it doesn't go viral?

In the video, Cathy Baron Tamraz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Business Wire, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, interviews Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Okay, so not every company has the "Oracle of Omaha" as its chairman. But every company has a chairman, CEO or president who their customers, stockholders and the media want to hear from.

Yes, yes, you can always insert a quote from Le Grand Fromage in your next press release. But, imagine inserting a video interview as well.

You'll find the Business Wire press release was posted yesterday. It is entitled, "Warren Buffett is Bullish on America's Future, but Says That a Full Economic Recovery Will Take a While."

And attached to the press release is the video below.

So, even if 590,000 people don't view it in the next three days, I still found it compelling.

Oh, speaking of 590,000 views, that is what a demonstration of Google Maps Navigation (Beta) has received in the past three days. You can see it below.

Google Maps Navigation (Beta)

Okay, okay, so most companies don't have brand names that are verbs as well as nouns. But every company has products that its customers, shareholders and other stakeholders want to hear about.

So, do these videos have anything else in common? They aren't funny, which also makes me think: Why isn't your company using video marketing?

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 5, 2009

eMarketer Report Says Keep Video Ads Short and Relevant

David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst, has just written new report entitled, "Marketing to the Online Video Audience."

Although online video viewership has never been higher and marketers are eager to reach this large and growing audience, many online video viewers dislike intrusive video ads -- even though they freely accept TV commercials.

Hallerman thinks this audience perspective can shift if marketers increasingly implement two key concepts.

First, he thinks they should focus on "making the length of video ads suitable to the length of content, so that they are not too pushy." Second, he believes they should also focus on "devoting resources to develop high-quality video creative that is well-targeted to the intended online audience."

"The Internet and TV audience are not one and the same," says Hallerman. "The Internet audience does not necessarily respond to the same ads in the same way they would after viewing them on TV."

For example, younger people are more comfortable than their older counterparts with online media, which can lead to higher levels of engagement. A drill-down look from Nielsen Online shows that audiences ages 30 and younger are more likely than older viewers to find online video advertising funny, emotionally touching and informative -- essential qualities for brand marketing.

The net-net: Keep it short and keep it relevant.

If you want more details, read the article, "Engaging Online Video Viewers," which was just posted on eMarketer.

You can also read more about this topic in my book, "YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day."

Back in the 1990s, I worked for William B. Ziff, Jr. He often said a special-interest magazine was a like a magnet and a screen: It attracted readers interested in a topic but also sifted out those who weren't as interested. This created an audience that endemic advertisers could reach cost-effectively, because a high percentage of readers were interested in their products.

Although it is still early days for online video advertising, it appears that viewers attracted to a video like Monty Python's Argument Clinic might also be interested in buying The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus on Amazon.com.

In fact, when Monty Python launched their YouTube channel in November 2008, not only did their YouTube videos shoot to the top of the most viewed lists, but their DVDs also quickly climbed to No. 2 on Amazon's Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent.

You find this case study and plenty of other practical tips in my book. If you don't believe me, you can read Lee Odden's, "Review: YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day," on his Online Marketing Blog. Hey, if Odden says "You cannot afford to miss this story," then you probably shouldn't.

Or, if you'd like to have an argument, just let the receptionist know if you want to start with a five-minute argument or take a full course of 10 arguments.

Argument Clinic

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 3, 2009

Social Media Press Release Blown Away in Hail of Bullets

This week, I saw an optimized press release blown away by Google News because it was mistaken for a social media press release. It fell under a hail of bullets, an innocent victim of a formatting decision. Before I share this tragic story, let me provide some background.

Two years ago, I asked, "Is the Social Media Press Release a Meatball Sundae?" I had just finished reading Seth Godin's book, Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?, which defined "meatball sundae" as "the unfortunate result of mixing two good ideas." And I answered my rhetorical question by accusing the "social media press release" alias "social media news release" alias "social media release" of being a meatball sundae.

I said the meatballs were the press releases, which should be optimized for news search engines, and the sundae toppings were the "Technorati tags, Digg buttons, del.icio.us bookmarks and other Web 2.0 features," which should be added to online stories and blog posts.

And I pointed out that adding Technorati tags to your social media press releases doesn't get them into Technorati, submitting social media news releases to social news sites like Digg was social media suicide, and using a jazzy new format that features bullet points and del.icio.us links wasn't going to make bloggers care about your content.

Six months later, I took a second look at the questions I'd raised in a blog post entitled, "Does Social Media 2.0 deserve a second life?" Instead of jumping to conclusions, I said the right approach to Social Media 2.0 was to test it, test it, and test it again.

Many of the new distribution options and PR measurement tools worked. But adding social media elements to press releases didn't. Blogs and other social media enable two-way conversation, but most press releases - even many of ones that use the social media format - are essays, not interviews; broadcasts, not conversations; lectures, not discussions.

One of the things that I didn't test back then was the suggested use of bulleted text in social media press releases, versus the narrative format of traditional press releases. Although I prefered the narrative approach, I figured that it was totally fine use bullets. I mistakenly figured that format isn't content, so it probably didn't matter.

Then, this week I drafted an optimized press release about an iPhone application for a client who shall remain nameless. As a courtesy, my client sent the draft to a third-party firm that had designed and developed the iPhone app. The final approved version came back -- with bullet points listing the key features.

Since it had already taken a month to get Apple's approval to even announce the new iPhone app, I didn't make a big deal about using a list of bullets in the optimized press release. Hey, I'm open minded.

But the next morning, I was shocked, shocked to find that Yahoo! News had indexed the optimized press release, but Google News hadn't. The optimized press release had top rankings for targeted keyword phrases in Yahoo! News, but I couldn't find it -- even when I typed the entire headline into the search box and hit the Search News button.

Now, Google News can be arbitrary, whimisical and capracious when it comes to crawling press release distribution services. For example, its automated system is currently best able to crawl headlines or anchor text links that have 22 words or less.

But, I already knew that. So, I talked with the technical gurus at my press release distribution servce. Then, I went looking to see if anyone else had encountered this phenomenon before, or if it was the result of a recent change to the Google News algorithim.

That's when found a post by Rebecca Corliss on HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog entitled, "Study Shows Social Media Releases Are Less Effective than Traditional Press Releases." In May 2009, Corliss conducted a study comparing the results of social media releases and traditional releases by publishing them across five newswires.

As you can see in the graph to the left, the traditional release format performed much better.

And one of her findings jumped off the page. She said, "Don't use formatting. Many portal sites don't accept it. (For the technical folks, we're talking about XHTML.) Ditch the bullets, the itallics and bold type. It complicates the code and makes it more difficult for your release to be syndicated. "

Corliss added, "Use social media and multimedia elements in your PR strategy, not your press releases."

So, after conferring, conversing and otherwise hobnobbing with my fellow wizards, I decided that it was time to test the narrative format in a second press release versus the bulleted text in the first.

Now, I also made some edits to the headline -- changing "launches iPhone app" to "iPhone app launched by" -- and I revised the subhead and lead paragraph. But, these were just to put a fresh look on the announcement for Yahoo! News users.

The most significant change that I made was to rewrite the bulleted text into the narrative format.

Two days later, I submitted the second press release -- selecting the same news release distribution package -- and found that both Google News and Yahoo! News had indexed it. Oh, and it had top rankings for targeted keyword phrases in both news search engines. So, press release optimization still works.

But, what's the net-net? The excessive use of bullets can kill press releases. The Associate Press doesn't use them -- even for AP News in Brief. And according to Newsknife, the Associated Press was the No. 1 source in Google News for September 2009 as well as for the year to October.

So, write your next press release the same way that AP writes its online stories. Oh, and this isn't some dyed-in-the-wool defense of traditional journalism. Check out the number of YouTube videos from The Associated Press that appear in Google News.

Back on June 28, 2009, the YouTube Biz Blog invited any professional news outlet that is already included as one of the 25,000+ sources in Google News to become an official partner on YouTube and more easily share your news videos on both YouTube and Google News.

So, I'm all for innovation -- as long as it works.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

September 29, 2009

Microsoft Windows 7 House Party: Public Relations Disaster or Video Marketing Triumph?

If you create something so bad that it goes viral, is it a public relations disaster or a video marketing triumph?

That's the question that journalists and bloggers are asking after watching HostingYourParty, which tells you how to host a Microsoft Windows 7 House Party.

Microsoft is putting a Tupperware-style twist on the upcoming Windows 7 rollout -- launching a new initiative to encourage thousands of employees, partners and technology enthusiasts to throw parties in their homes and communities to demonstrate and help spread the word about its new operating system.

People accepted as official launch party hosts will get their own copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, and a chance to win a computer. But unlike the Tupperware model, there will be no literal selling. These parties are more about generating word-of-mouth buzz.

To promote this idea, Microsoft has uploaded a video to YouTube. Some journalists and bloggers think it is a public relations disaster.

Cindy Perman of CNBC writes, "You just knew that once they put the Microsoft geeks in charge of the "party," that it wouldn't be a 10-kegger and before long, we'd all be putting lampshades over our heads."

Ian Douglas, a tech blogger for the Daily Telegraph in London, writes, "I'm beginning to think that no one involved with Microsoft's advertising has ever left the house or spoken to a real person."

And James Lileks of The Bleat writes, "If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool."

Now, you may be tempted to watch this 6-minute, 14-second video yourself -- to jump to your own conclusion. But, I warn you -- only serious geeks like me will watch beyond the first minute.

HostingYourParty

Now, if Microsoft really wanted to show people how to hold a Windows 7 Launch Party, they might have created a remix of the 1950s educational video below about what, in fact, makes a "good" party.

1950 - What Makes a Good Party

Not all of the reaction to Microsoft's Windows 7 House Party has been negative. Some of it can be charitably described as "mixed."

David Meerman Scott of Web Ink Now, asks, "Is this Microsoft Windows 7 House Party thing real? Or is it an incredibly wonderful and clever spoof on a 50s educational video that is so well done as to have fooled most observers who seem to think it is legit?"

Janice L. Brown of The Fussy Marketer also asks, "Hmm, if something goes viral because it's so bad, does that still count as achieving the marketing goals?"

Nevertheless, Lieutenant Columbo, if he were blogging these days, would ask just one more thing: "Why did Microsoft disable ratings and adding comments on HostingYourParty?"

Is this something you'd do if you were hoping for a video marketing triumph?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

June 11, 2009

$14 Million For CircuitCity Domain, Brand = Good Link Buy?

Aaron Wall does a great analysis of the smart play by the company that bought the CircuitCity domain and brand out of bankruptcy as the new high end link buying procedure.

The site is well ranked for many many keywords and with the recent boost of brands in the Google algorithm it could be that $14 million was a bargain that could be recouped very quickly.

Aaron does a great job dissecting the purchase and gives one ideas for gaining lift from less expensive domains that have gone into bankruptcy. I wonder if people will now start looking at bankruptcy reports instead of the expired domain lists.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 18, 2009

Facial Recognition Software Being Used To Take Attendance

Facial recognition software has been made popular from various crime shows, but it seems the real thing is now being used to take attendance at a university in the UK.

Four years ago there were search engines that measured visual similarity, now the NCIS, CSI and other crime show technology is actually being used.

The City of Ely Community College - not Oxford or Cambridge - is setting the standards of the future.

Posted by Frank Watson at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 5, 2008

Half of British and Irish Marketers Use SEO for PR Purposes

According to new research by Citigate Dewe Rogerson, 51.4% of marketers in the UK and Ireland use search engine optimization (SEO) tactics for public relations (PR) purposes. Brilliant!

And almost two-thirds of respondents suggesting that internet-based PR was important. Brilliant!

However, just over four in 10 marketers in the UK and Ireland said that they did not have the in-house digital skills to develop a sound online PR strategy, while 31.2% indicated that their organizations did not fully understand the business benefits of internet PR.

Well, to remedy that situation, all marketers need to do is attend Search Engine Strategies London, February 17-19, 2009. On the agenda are sessions like:

Universal & Blended Search -- Search result multiplicity is not a new phenomenon, but recent advancements guarantee that the world of search and marketing will be changing forever. Before you attend this week's optimization and best practices sessions, learn from industry gurus how the steps that follow the search are developing. Our ongoing series on universal search will include research data available only at SES.

Online Video Update: The Next Wave -- This session will provide tips on how to navigate the new wave of online video, as more people are watching, sharing, and finding videos online. It will cover the four contributing factors to the massive surge in popularity and predicted continued growth for online video, as well as the converging factors that have led to the next wave of online video search. The panelists will also discuss the issues with video search, and the industry's desire for standards on how to tag, organize, and find videos.

SEO Through Blogs & Feeds -- Not yet running a blog? Not syndicating your content through web feeds? Then you're missing out on an important area that can help your overall SEO efforts. Learn more about the unique advantages blogs and feeds offer to search engine optimization.

News Search SEO -- News search engines offer a great way to receive targeted traffic related to breaking topics or to help with a public relations launch. In this session, we look at how to make use of press releases and news content to tap into the power of news search.

Video & Podcast SEO -- New products make it easier to locate video content from across the web or to find "podcast" programs, on-demand radio-like shows people can listen to on MP3 players or their computers. This session will provide a look at various services and how to get your content visible and audible within them.

Brand & Reputation Management -- Can you use a competitor's trademark in your own search advertising? Or what if a competitor has an ad running on your trademarked brand name? Should you engage professional legal help or are there other options? What if bloggers are posting negative or false claims about your brands and these are spreading with viral speed through other blogs? Are there ways to get these damaging messages out of the search engines? This session will provide an exploration of these and other brand protection issues.

Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Mentions Online -- Link building is crucial, but linkbait tactics that worked this year may not be as effective next year. This session focuses on the underlying quality as well as ingenuity needed to get other websites to link to you early and often. It will also explain how you should approach journalists, bloggers and other authoritative sources to enhance your company's online reputation, whether or not you get links.

And on Friday, February 20, 2008, there are half-day workshops, including:

Reaching Your Audience Through Blogs, taught by Jennifer Laycock of Search Engine Guide.

Link and Reputation Workshop, taught by Dixon Jones of Receptional.

In other words, marketers can develop the in-house digital skills to develop a sound online PR strategy. And, if their organizations don't fully understand the business benefits of internet PR now, they will by the end of SES London 2009.

At SES London 2008, I interviewed Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, about some of the public relations oriented sessions at that conference.

Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing, at SES London 2008

And if you register for one of the SES conference packages before Dec. 22, 2008, you can save up to £300 with the Early Bird Rate. Brilliant!

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 25, 2008

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Advanced Education for Search Marketers

Randy Pausch delivered the "Last Lecture" after he learned that he'd developed terminal pancreatic cancer.

His video became an Internet sensation, with over 3,000,000 views on YouTube. Pausch was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

You can find Randy Pausch's home page here: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

Randy Pausch died today at the age of 47.

He is survived by his wife, Jai Pausch and three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe - to whom he dedicated his video lecture.

We've written a great deal about the education of a search engine marketer. Ron Jones's column, SEM.edu, provides a wealth of information about learning the technical aspects of SEM and SEO.

Today we'll take a brief look at the most important goal: achieving your dreams.

Here's the complete video of the "Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 3, 2008

Need To Track Your Brand Online? Try Search Monitor

There was a new service launched at the beginning of the month that follows all uses of your brand, domain, special keywords and more - Search Monitor. And before you jump at me for the plug I am not associated with it at all.

I was sent the press release and information about the product and from what I have seen so far this could be a great tool for reputation management, keeping an eye on competitors using your name etc. or even to track affiliates.

There are some products out there that cover some of the elements, but the interface is easy to navigate and provides some valuable monitors that many of us can use.

The press release states:

The Search Monitor (“TSM”), an online monitoring service that tracks competitive advertiser activity on paid search, blogs, news, and web sites, announces the product release of three new automated monitoring utilities: Competitor Monitor, Trademark Monitor, and Affiliate Monitor.

With this launch, interactive agencies, marketers, affiliate managers, and compliance teams gain critical insight into search marketing strategies, affiliate activities, trademark abuse, and brand buzz. The Search Monitor offers important information that can only be gained by careful 24x7 automated monitoring, and surfaces the information in 3 easy to use reporting sections:

1. Competitor Monitor gives insights into competitive bidding strategies, competitor market share and visibility, ranking on sponsored search, ad copy strategies, and promotions like free shipping, trials, or sales.

2. Trademark Monitor eases the tasks associated with reputation management by auto-detecting advertisers sponsoring branded keywords, use of trademarks and slogans in ad copy and display urls, and brand buzz on blogs, news, and web sites.

3. Affiliate Monitor simplifies oversight of affiliate programs by auto-identification of affiliates using sponsored search to detect violations of rank requirements, keyword restrictions, ad copy requirements or restrictions, and landing page copy requirements or restrictions.

Search engine marketing has become a critical component for advertisers. According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), North American advertisers spent $12.2 billion on SEM in 2007 and that figure is estimated to more than double to reach $25.2 billion by 2011. The Search Monitor was developed to provide the tools necessary to optimize the sizable investments being made in this medium and to protect brands from competitive threats.

“There is a big problem in the industry known as ‘Piggybacking' which is when smaller advertisers use the trademarks or slogans of bigger advertisers in ad copy or display urls to lure consumers into clicking on their ads”, says Shaun Martinec, a TSM founder. “For our larger brand clients, we have discovered as many as 1 in 10 competitors engaging in this practice. We were quite alarmed to learn that some violators are parked domains, phishing, and spyware sites. With The Search Monitor, our clients are able to catch these activities and react quickly.”

Another advantage of having a monitoring tool such as The Search Monitor is that marketers and agencies can glean insights into competitive online advertising campaigns including ad copy, promotional offers and ad placement strategies.

Posted by Frank Watson at 6:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 26, 2008

Hillary Clinton out-Googled by Barack Obama 2008 campaign

Was the more seasoned Hillary Clinton presidential campaign out-Googled by the more search savvy Barack Obama 2008 campaign? According to Kate Kay, senior editor of ClickZ, our sister site, Clinton Spent Far Less Online Than Obama.

And there are lessons here that every search engine marketer is going to want learn regardless of his or her political stripes.

BNN (Business Network News) recently interviewed Kate Kay, who explained that the Barack Obama 2008 campaign also used pay-per-click advertising on Google for different purposes than the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. You can watch the video interview with Kate below.

Obama Ads Online: Search Advertising Analysis by Kate Kaye

So, are you using geographic targeting? Are you using a soft offer in your PPC advertising and then using an email marketing campaign to follow with direct response marketing?

If you are trying to out-Google your seasoned PPC competitors, consider borrowing a couple of SEM techniques from the search savvy people working for the “skinny kid with a funny name.” Yes, yes, I know they're from Chicago, not New York. But, there's nothing “Second City” about their approach to search engine marketing.

In April, Li Evans reported that Barack Obama was Rocking the Youth Vote. In May, Kevin Heisler reported that the Obama campaign was advertising on the Search Engine Watch Jobs Board. In June, Nathania Johnson reported that Google's Peter Greenberger had tied the Obama and McCain victors to their AdWords spend.

And, now the Barack Obama 2008 campaign is getting ready to make history in American presidential politics. To borrow a line from Abraham Lincon, find out what Chicago-style deep-dish pizza they eat and give it to your other generals.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 27, 2008

Testing Landing Pages Includes Testing Best Practices

The Google Website Optimizer blog has an interesting case study about a landing page test. The test was done for a stair remodeling and new home construction business. Best practices dictate that the original page with a model of a customer service rep should have done better. But it did not.

Instead, the page performed better after removing the image and a sidebar, both of which impeded the view of a beautiful set of stairs. How much did it improve? Online conversions increased by a whopping 144% and average order size increased 18%.

What do you think about this case study? Do you test best practices? Let us know in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 11, 2008

We May Not Want Standards But FTC May Give Us Some

The standards debate may be in full swing in our industry - but the decisions may be soon taken out of our hands if the FTC continues to define allowable advertising practices.

MediPost has a good overview of the developments of behavioral targeting and how they can be used. "Ad industry players are urging the FTC not to impose any new regulations — and also argue that the proposed voluntary guidelines are too restrictive," they reported.

Where this gets close to our industry comes from the people seeking greater regulations. "Privacy advocates, on the other hand, want to see rules that will require companies to honor Web users' preferences about whether they wish to be tracked online and to receive targeted ads," MediaPost notes.

If this occurs then search is on the horizon of these groups. And we better be aware of them if consumer advocacy groups are claiming they "want to see new rules, rather than rely on voluntary compliance with trade groups".

MediaPost quotes both Google and Microsoft at the end of the article and they have opposing views.

"Google, meanwhile, is especially concerned that the standards could affect search ads. In comments to the FTC, Google said it's testing personalized search results, and argued that search ads shouldn't be considered “behavioral” even when the ads displayed to users are based on their search history.

“We are currently experimenting in our Search service with providing ads based on both the current query and the immediately previous search,” Google wrote. “For example, a user who types ‘Italy vacation' into the Google search box might see ads about Tuscany or affordable flights to Rome. If the user were to subsequently search for ‘weather,' we might assume that there is a link between ‘Italy vacation' and ‘weather' and deliver ads regarding local weather conditions in Italy.”

Google rival Microsoft, on the other hand, said it supports the FTC's goals and that the proposed guidelines should be extended “to include the full array of online advertising activities.”

Funny about the Microsoft position given I have been in a pitch for increasing our budget where they used competitors advertising information to suggest other terms and ads..... anonymous of course but not hard to reverse engineer.

Posted by Frank Watson at 4:33 PM | Permalink

March 11, 2008

Your Baby's Ugly - Why You Need Landing Page Optimization Now

All new parents think their drooling, wailing, wrinkled little midget is beautiful - and that's as it should be. The same seems to be true of landing pages. If an online marketing campaign is making money, it's taken as proof the landing pages are beautiful--and don't need further improvement.

In fact, landing pages typically range from barely acceptable to horrible. They are often at direct cross-purposes with the desired conversion action and stated goals of the business.

In this sorry state of affairs lies a terrific opportunity - fixing your landing pages can often lead to long-lasting double or even triple digit gains in conversion rate. This can change the economics of your business overnight.

Landing page optimization is no longer optional. It's one of the core activities that all online marketers must pay serious attention to. Landing page optimization spans the important topics of usability, copywriting, web design, and information architecture.

But landing page optimization also requires a proper grounding in math and test design. The messy reality of real-time marketing rears its ugly head. Organizational considerations required to build a testing program are key. You may need to change the mindset within your company.

I've covered these topics and more in my recent book Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions (John Wiley Press 2008). The book even got a really nice unsolicited writeup from SES London Chair Mike Grehan in his How To Avoid A Crash Landing column (and I didn't even have to pay a dime from the giant stash of payola money that I have available for such plugs).

I want to start a conversation and a revolution, but first we must break down the walls of denial:

Repeat after me: "My baby is ugly..."

Posted by Tim Ash at 8:19 PM | Permalink

January 17, 2008

Selling CEOs on Search Engine Marketing

http://www.skylinetechnologies.com/services/online-marketing/news/EyeTrack.pdf

What's the biggest mistake any search engine marketer can make? Blowing a presentation to decision-makers. Even with phenomenal results and ROI, a search marketing campaign has little value unless your CEO understands why you're investing millions of dollars online.

Search marketing agency OneUpWeb announced the launch of a new eye tracking service today that builds on the agency's search engine optimization and usability practices.

Selling to the C-suite -- CEOs, CMOs, CTOs -- is one of the toughest jobs for any search marketing agency, consultang or VP of Marketing presenting a strategy for SEM.

Jakob Nielsen, one of the world's leading Web site usability experts, has done extensive work on eye tracking you can see here. Eyetools features studies by agencies (Sendtec) and Yahoo here.

Eye tracking and heat maps aren't magic bullets that will explain SEM tactics used to achieve ROI goals. Heat map and eye tracking pioneers in search marketing like Gord Hotchkiss of search marketing and research firm Enquiro and Lisa Wehr, CEO of OneUpWeb have a competitive advantage in the boardroom.

The Didit Enquiro heat map is used more in search engine marketing sales presos -- by all agencies -- than any other chart or graph.

In search engines, eye tracking heat maps illustrate the value of SEO and paid search. Combined with a click map overlay, a heat map gives companies better insight into the searchers' database of intentions.

That proves the value of search throughout the sales, research, and lead generation funnel.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 9:18 AM | Permalink

January 4, 2008

SEW Experts: Google AdWords 101

The Internet is overflowing with high-level discussion of how to plan a search advertising campaign. But sometimes, a new advertiser needs to know the actual steps of setting up an AdWords campaign and look into the methodology of setting up ads and A/B testing. In today's debut SEM Crossfire column, "Google AdWords 101," Frank Watson, aka AussieWebmaster, gives new advertisers a lesson on how to launch their first ever Google AdWords campaigns.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 10, 2007

Building A Search Team

I did a panel about SEM Campaigns and Project Management at the Miami SES conference earlier this year and used the opportunity to compare the needs of multilingual search marketers and the essential core of any search team. A few people liked it and I have been asked to resurrect the presentation or at least what I remember of it.

Basically what I suggested is that multilingual search focuses you in the way every good search marketing campaign should be.

It requires a subtlety of mind – not a rocket scientist's mind – but one that understands that language is fluid and will mean different things to different people. This is especially pertinent to people marketing into other countries with languages they do not know. But it is also true of local marketing.

Picking a Search Marketing Team

What you need to be aware of is that you can't grab something that has been successful in one language and just translate it – or for that matter apply it to another niche or another skill set without testing and being aware of possible problems.

Picking a team is like picking the right keywords. There are pitfalls and some times you may need to try again, but with the right knowledge and a good methodology you can be a lot more successful than going it blind.

The elements that make up a good search team are:

Knowledge of Organics
PPC Expertise
Copywriting Skills
Solid Web Designing
Advanced Analytics Experience
Some Programming Knowledge
The Five Senses

Obviously knowledge of the known elements of organic optimization is a major element. You need to be on top of both on-page and off-page elements – since they are always changing and have been listed in numerous places, I will not detail them. But be sure you can determine if the potential team member knows them.

PPC expertise requires a diverse skill set. There is ability to make keyword selections, AB testing and ROI measurement, as well as knowledge of the ever-changing engine rules. Experience with large and small engines is something I have a preference for, but is not essential.

I always look for copywriting skills, though they don't have to be specific. Good writers can adapt, and in our space that is very necessary. One minute we are writing text for pages – content that sings and closes, yet contains the right repetitions of our chosen keywords – the next we are writing headlines, or Google ads (they seem the same to me). Using 25 characters and then two lines of 35 is not natural. Finding the person who can make them get your attention, hold it and push you to action is the "Holy Grail" of any good marketing team.

Solid web designing may seem something that search marketers can leave to other departments... Never happens. We have to know enough to make sure the design elements include the behind-the-scenes on-page elements. If you can't look at source code and understand what is happening, you can miss a simple mistake that is costing you organic placement. Understanding the way elements of design change between different industries, languages, or cultures is important for success.

Analytics is the one area that you need to truly be on top of. It shows you what needs to be done to correct problems in all the other areas, and focuses marketing in the right ROI-positive direction. Yes, you can hire someone who shows they have a math- and analytical-focused mind and train them. Just make sure it is with a number of different programs so those little differences between programs are in the person's head. They come in handy when developing advanced measurement methods and interpretation.

Some programming knowledge is really essential. I know successful marketers that leave it to others, but if you want to stay well ahead of the competition, you need to be developing new methods. Programming knowledge will help when working with your developers, and will also allow you to think of ways to use your other areas of knowledge for creating new tools.

Lastly there are the five senses – well, the ones we need for successful marketing.

Sense of Humor
Sense of Camaraderie
Sense of Purpose
Sense of Dedication
Common Sense

Without all five, it is extraordinarily hard to build that stellar team. Most successful companies rely on them.

The skills can be combined into a team as small as two, but as the project grows, so should the team. Also remember to always reward creativity, and constantly be training.

It is not hard, but I have seen too many departments that did not grasp that we are generally odd-shaped pegs that never fit in neat holes.

Posted by Frank Watson at 11:03 PM | Permalink

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